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Wednesday, 7 June 2017

Wild Bird Wednesday 254 - Hooded Parrot

Just like last week, these pictures are from the sports oval at Pine Creek, Northern Territory, Australia.

These rather magnificent birds are Hooded Parrots (Psephotus dissimilis). This bird is only found in a limited area of the Northern Territory in Australia - so it won't come as much of a surprise to find out that I had not seen these birds before. If the truth be told, these were not the hardest birds to find as there were dozens of them on and around the sports oval.

The name Psephotus dissimilis appears to reference how dissimilar the male and female of this species are; however, it has been pointed out that many, many birds show such differences, so this may not have really been the intention. These birds nest in termite mounds an feed on the seeds of grasses, so they are dependant on open woody areas with (you guessed it) termite mounds.

The paler birds in these pictures are female.

Although these birds are hardly in their natural habitat - sprinkler heads are not native to Australia! - I like the way these images reference both the importance of water in the NT and the impact of humans on Australia's Top End.

As ever, to join in with WBW, just click the blue button below the thumbnails. With luck I will catch up with comments and such like over the next few days. SM

Both are stunning, each in it's own way. Once again a bird I have not seen before. I am sure I would be an ignorant birder were it not for you, Stewart. Such a pleasure to come to your WBW each week. As for migration, it is discussed almost daily ... every time we read a new headline. Surely, I think to myself, the rest of the country will figure out that this must stop, but no ... it goes on and gets worse. Yes, migration is a possibility :)

Very interesting. Beautiful parrots and I love how they've figured out where the water is located. Smart birds and yes, coming from the desert, our birds are really good at finding a drip or puddle created by human....especially during this month. It is hot here.

Hi Stewart. Finally caught up with you. At first glance I though the parrots were on a tripod head but I can understand now why they would be on sprinkler heads. Clever stuff. You have so many parrots in your part of the world, always so colourful and much better than seeing them in cages.

Incredibly beautiful birds. I never cease to be amazed. And yes. Water. We left our Florida home in the midst of a downpour and it rained steadily the first three days of our road trip. I kept telling myself that it was desperately needed (which it is), but I sure was glad to see some sunshine yesterday.